EU Food-Safety Watchdog Plan
Sparks Widespread Controversy

BRUSSELS -- Three leading scientists' proposal to create a powerful new agency to guarantee food safety in the European Union is giving some people indigestion.

There is a general consensus in Europe that public consumer-protection authorities lack credibility following a string of recent food scares involving disease-riddled beef, dioxin-laced eggs and contaminated Coke. Commission President Romano Prodi has put food safety at the...